HP could face a strike in the UK

HP COULD FACE its first strike in the UK after the trade union Unite holds a vote among its members working as HP engineers and support specialists.

Unite announced the action over the company's planned changes that would see 150 employees of HP IT services losing final salary pension arrangements and performance benefits worth about £2,000 each.

"Our members face cuts to their pay and pensions and have no choice other than to begin an industrial action ballot. This is the latest in a series of attacks by the company on our members' pay and conditions, while senior executives and shareholders do very well indeed,” said Peter Skyte, a Unite national officer.

"Unite remains willing to seek a resolution to this dispute with HP but not on the basis that one employee’s pay cut results in a HP executive’s pay and bonus increase.”

In its last financial report HP reported profits of £973 million for the quarter, and said that European demand was lower than in any other major market.

The company has already confirmed it will be cutting some of its UK workers but hasn’t confirmed numbers, although Unite expects 850 job cuts. It has also cut staffing at EDS and has repeatedly cut salaries.

Unite is the UK's largest trade union and has become increasingly active in the IT sphere, having taking on IBM and Fujitsu over pensions and job losses. µ